I have a need, a need to stop.... fixing the brakes.

[Special Note: After much debate with my dear friend Gary, its been concluded that Steve McQueen rode a Triumph in 'The Great Escape.' My bad. Sure did look like a Royal Enfield. Gary, by the way, is doing the same thing I'm doing in Austin. He purchased a 70's model Triumph T150 to restore to life. Pretty soon we'll be cruising through the Texas Hill Country together… *insert "CHiPs'" theme song here.]

[Also, let me just say that I decided to blog about my motorcycle after I started working on it. So the first couple of days of repair are lacking photos.]

After taking a good look at the bike, I realized that in order for me to starting riding it is to make sure that the essentials are fixed. My GS650GZ is a 29 year old bike, and I don't know how long it has been sitting, so there's no telling when the last basic maintenance was made. (Yes, GZ are my initials too! Coincidence? No, I say its fate.)

This is definitely going to be a long term project. I'm only going to spend about $200 a month on fixing this bike. Even if it takes me a year to fix it completely. Why $200? Ever since I saw the Royal Enfield, I started saving $200 a month so I could save up and buy it out right. I don't like payments, more particularly, interest rates…. and fuck creditors!

Being in night classes Monday through Thursdays, the only time I can really spend working on the GS is Friday night, Saturdays and Sunday. I'll be devoting one day on the weekend to spend time with my family. They don't see me enough as it is.

That said I'm going to tackle one section per weekend because that's all I have time for and so that I don't break the budget. I still gotta eat and put gas in the car. I figure I can buy one part a month and replace whatever needs to be replaced when I get there. This will really test my patience.

To save some money, I will attempt to do most of the work myself when it comes to body work. I'll also enlist the help of friends' advice based on each of their expertise and experience.

Luckily, I had already bought all the tools I will be needing for my classes. So I have a the tools to work on my bike. Most of them are Craftsman tools. So if any of them break I can just get a new one. Gotta love their warranty. Basic hand tools to get by…

Metric box end wrenches (6mm-20mm)
3/8" drive metric socket set
1/4" drive metric socket set
A ball pein hammer
Soft face hammer
A feeler gauge (for valve adjustments and other things)
Pliers (long nose and combination)
Wire cutter
Allen wrenches
Multimeter with an amp clamp
C clamps
A Micrometer
Punch and chisel set
And, of course, safety glasses and gloves

I'm sure I'll be buying more as the need arises, but for now this is a good place to start.

So, first thing is first, I figure I'd start somewhere easy. Luckily, the bike starts and is able to be ridden. The guy I bought it from said he rode it up and down the street, and he started the bike with no problem when I went there to go see it. That said, I thought if I was going to do test rides, the brakes and brake lines better be good. Stopping is kind of necessary.

I'll be replacing the brake lines later on, but in the mean time I'm just going to make do with what I've got. There was no telling how long the brake fluid had been sitting in those master cylinders, so I figure I'd flush out the front and rear brakes.

The rear brakes were easy. The lines weren't clogged and the calipers worked well. I still need to take it all apart later on to clean them and make sure the pads are good, but for now, it'll do. The front brakes, however, was a completely different story. I took the master cylinder cover off and the brake fluid had turned from clear to black. I sopped it up with some paper towels to uncover rust sediment on the bottom. At first, I thought if I cleaned this up, this should fix the problem. So I took it apart to clean it and made sure to get most of the rust deposits off of there. Brake cleaner helped a lot in the process being careful not to get it on any rubber parts as it will damage them. After I got done, I put it back together and reinstalled it on the handle bar. Tried it out. Nothing.

So, I figured that I might as well take the entire system apart, brake lines and calipers included. I took apart the calipers to find rust sediments in them as well. There's one on either side of the from wheel so I had to do it twice. I made sure that the piston was not seized. Using a C clamp to free it lose. The brake pads were still good so I cleaned them up to be reused.

There are 3 total brake lines for the front brake system... one from the master cylinder that goes in to a splitter, and two lines that go to each caliper on both sides of the front tire from the splitter. I took them apart and made sure to clean each banjo bolt, and I took some thin steel wire and a pair of long nose pliers and ran it through the entire length of each line. At this point, I wasn't going to be surprise to what I will encounter, but the stuff that came out of those lines were just plain nasty. no wonder the brakes were not working. After a thorough cleaning, I reinstalled everything back on the bike.

As if it wasn't difficult enough, no one told me that putting brake fluid back in would be the most time consuming part when its done manually. I had gone to Sears to pick up some things and I saw a couple of brake bleeder kits. One for $7 that consisted of a plastic bottle and some hoses, which is what I bought, and a $34 dollar kit with pumps and all sorts of gadgets. I should have gone with the $34 dollar one. More expensive, but it would have save me an hour or so of pumping the brake lever thousands of times to get the fluid started and through the system. Eventually, with the help of my roommate, it was finished… and it worked. =)

First hurdle. Conquered.

GZ